


As Many Chances as You'd Allow me to Give

by sunscreams



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon Fix-It, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 17:37:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16623428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunscreams/pseuds/sunscreams
Summary: Something was calling Adora into the Whispering Woods, and as the protector of Etheria, who was Adora to ignore it?Now translated intoPусский.





	As Many Chances as You'd Allow me to Give

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, I would die for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, I'd just like everyone to know.
> 
> Now translated into [Pусский](https://ficbook.net/readfic/7774250/19748694?status=1&show_comments=1&rnd=0.6588135034786609#com70697763).

Adora was restless, and she felt like it wasn’t just the excitement she’d been feeling since she’d saved the world with the rest of the Alliance. It was something more. Something deeper. Something she felt in her bones. 

The energy buzzed under her skin and made her want to move. It was like she was feeling everything—breathing, and buzzing, and _living_ —around her. She’d felt like this as She-Ra before, and it was always when she was fighting. And it always went away after Adora became just Adora again. 

Adora pulled her blanket up around her ears, and rolled over to face the large window that looked down on a grove just outside of the Whispering Wood. Adora had, for most of her life, thought of the Fright Zone, and the Hoard camp within it, as her home. 

But now, as she looked out at the light indigo sky, and the glowing trees in the Whispering Wood below, Adora was beginning to think otherwise. 

Another harsh pull in her chest had Adora sitting up. She allowed her blanket to pool around her waist, and she pulled her hair into a ponytail, all the while unable to tear her eyes away from the forrest. 

Something was wrong. The energy in Adora’s chest hummed within her, but it was like a minor chord had been plucked on a harp string: it was somber and mournful. A cry in the dark for help. 

And Adora was that help now, wasn’t she?

Who was she to ignore the call?

With her mind barely made up, Adora slid out of bed, into her clothes, shouldered her sword, and disappeared into the night. 

 

* * *

 

Catra smoothed her fingertips down the face of a tree. Its bark had been gouged by something, making the rough surface even rougher. Catra let out a humourless huff; because wasn’t that just perfect? Wasn’t that just like her?

A rough thing made even rougher. 

Catra briefly thought back to the night that started this whole mess. When Adora stole a skiff and rode them both into the Whispering Wood for the first time. The first time either of them had ever left the Fright Zone, and they had done it together. 

They’d fought over control of the skiff, as they often fought over many things: playful and enthusiastic. The sound of Adora’s laughter was still painfully fresh in Catra’s mind, yet horrifically dulled by the hateful glare Adora had specifically crafted for Catra. 

Catra remembered the gouge she’d put in a tree back then with the stolen skiff. The way it had guided her back to Adora. The way it had guided her back to the only person Catra had ever been foolish enough to love. 

Catra snatched her hand off of the tree as if it had burned her. It was stupid to believe this was the same gash. It was stupid to believe that Adora was anywhere nearby. It was stupid to believe that Adora would be looking for Catra after all that she’d done. 

After all, Catra had proven herself to be quite good at hurting people; at destroying, and taking, and betraying. She’d done it to the innocent people of Etheria, she’d done it to the Shadow Weaver, she’d done it to Adora.

She’d done it to Adora the most. 

And she was the one who deserved it the least. 

“ _I never wanted to leave you. You could come with me.”_ Adora’s hand had been so warm where it sat on Catra’s arm.

_“I know you’re not a bad person.”_ The way Adora said it, could almost make Catra believe it. 

_“You don’t belong with the Horde.”_ The way Adora’s eyes shone hard with what she believed, made Catra want to yield. 

But she couldn’t.

Catra could never yield.

And now she was alone in a forrest she’d helped destroy with nothing and no one.

 

* * *

 

Adora pulled up short when reached the edge of the wood. The damage done to the forrest was so much clearer, so much worse, up close. With a quick pass of her sword, Adora became She-Ra, hoping she’d somehow be able to fix this—that now would be when her healing powers would manifest.

The second She-Ra placed her hand on the trunk of a tree, the humming minor chord erupted into a cacophonous symphony of mournful cries. The forrest was hurting no doubt, but there was something worse off father within its bounds. 

So with that, She-Ra began to push through the underbrush and fallen debris. It was cold here still, even to She-Ra: the few hours of sunlight at the end of the previous day, not enough to melt all of the ice clinging to the foliage. 

Adora didn’t know where she was going— didn’t know where She-Ra and that pull were leading her—but she knew that whatever was adding to the symphony in her head, needed her help. 

It was only when Adora spotted that familiar shaggy brown main that she stopped. She-Ra melted away and Adora pulled up short, her breath catching in her throat as she watched Catra’s ears perk up. Adora watched as Catra’s shoulders tensed and her hands clenched into fists at her sides. 

Adora had seen her like this many times growing up: against Shadow Weaver, Octavia, hell, even the other cadets. But never against Adora. 

Adora was still struggling to come to grips with their new reality. 

“Catra?” Adora’s voice was quieter than the soft wind that blew through the underbrush, but she knew Catra heard her: her ear twitched. 

Adora’s eyebrows pulled together in the silence that grew between them. A silence that Adora was unfortunately becoming very familiar with. She licked her lips, swallowed against the lump in her throat, and took a tentative step forward, her boots crushing the frost under her feet. 

“Catra, what are you still doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing, Princess,” Catra spit the title like poison as she turned around slowly, the mocking smirk on her face nothing like the adorable and devastating grin Adora was used to getting from her. 

Adora shook her head lightly, unsure of what to say, unsure of what Catra would hear. Because Adora had tried everything she could in that memory simulation. She’d begged and she’d pleaded, and in the end, it had all fallen on deaf ears. 

Catra had tried to kill Adora. Plain and simple. How do you come back from that?

So, Adora snapped her mouth shut and looked away, deciding nothing was better than anything. Catra had tried to kill her, and now the stupid magical bullshit pull was making Adora feel bad for the other girl.

“What,” Catra tilted her head to the side, a sharp glint in her eye that was painfully unfamiliar to Adora. “Cat got your tongue?” 

“No,” Adora immediately became defensive, easily riled up by Catra. “I just—” Adora cut herself off and tsked, angry that _this_ was the mournful call Etheria was sending her. 

Fucking Catra. 

“You what?” Catra snapped, jutting a hip out and crossing her arms. 

“Nothing, Catra,” Adora sighed, angry, because as-fucking-if Catra would listen to Adora this time. As if Catra would _join_ Adora this time. 

Fucking universe, reminding Adora of the love she’d never be allowed to have.

Catra let out one of her adorably annoying, humourless huffs, and that had Adora almost losing it. “Princesses,” Catra mumbled, and that was the line. That was all that Adora could take that night with the pull in her chest making her want to smother Catra in hugs and roses, and the cold air making her ache for the warmth of Catra’s embrace, and the memory of how fucking well Adora had slept with Catra curled at her feet, adorable and soft and—

“Fuck off, Catra!” Adora whipped around, “I’m not even a real princess.”

“That’s what you’re focusing on?” Catra had this unimpressed look on her face, her eyelids dipped low over her different coloured eyes, her hips coked to one side, and her tail making irritated patterns in the air behind her.

“Well,” Adora started, throwing her arms out to either side of herself. “Any other time I try to say anything important or meaningful, you ignore me, or, you know, _try to kill me_.”

Catra pulled back, as if Adora had hit her. The silence that stretched between them this time was different, but just as unpleasant. 

“I never wanted you to die,” Catra mumbled as she looked away. 

Adora clenched her jaw. “Evidence shows otherwise.”

“You know what Adora, fuck you,” Catra took a couple of impassioned steps forward, but Adora held her ground. “I’ve always been second best to you, and now that I’m first best, you can’t handle it, is that it?”

“What?” Adora couldn’t stop herself from sputtering. “I told you I never meant to make you feel that way—”

“Well, you did!” 

“And I’m sorry, Catra, fuck!” The two girls stood in the freezing wood, panting into the air between them. 

Adora sighed and took a step away. “I just don’t understand why you want to be in that place. The way they hurt you when we were kids.”

“They made me stronger, Adora,”

“No, I think they made you cruel.”

Catra’s eyes flashed in the dark as they shot to meet Adora’s. “Excuse me?”

“They hurt you and made you cruel, and I think that’s why you stay,” Adora’s voice trembled. “Because you think that no where else will accept you like that.” Adora turned back to Catra and took a step towards her, placing her hand on Catra’s arm. “But you don’t realize that I’d accepted you as is, all those years ago.”

“Years ago?” Catra murmured, her eyes focused on where Adora had joined them.

“You think you weren’t like this as a kid? You were angry and hurt, albeit for different reasons, but you acted the same.” Adora’s mouth lifted into a smile and she moved her hand into Catra’s. Catra’s fingers remained limp. 

“Remember Octavia? You scratched her in the eye and called her a dumb-face?” Adora felt Catra sigh, some of the tension leaving her frame, her fingers twitching in Adora’s grasp.

“You hurt Octavia, but you didn’t hate her,” Adora sighed, wanted so desperately to lean her head on top of Catra’s, but didn’t want to press her luck. “And even though you hurt me, I don’t think you hate me.”

Catra sighed and pressed her forehead against Adora’s collarbone. Adora couldn’t breathe. Adora brought a hand up to cradle the back of Catra’s head, and threaded her fingers through Catra’s wild, yet soft hair. 

“Maybe it’s too late for us,” Adora whispered into the night air, the words fogging in front of them. “But I know it’s not too late fo you, Catra.”

“Us?” Adora could feel the warm burst of air as Catra spoke. “What were we?”

Adora shrugged wistfully, “Best friends?”

“Best friends,” Catra repeated and then let out a soft huff. After a few more silent beats Catra said, “You really think it’s too late for us? That I don’t deserve another chance?”

“Catra,” Adora caved and placed her head on top of Catra’s, turning the loose hold, into a full on embrace, “I’d give you as many chances as you’d let me give you.”

Catra tsked, but didn’t move away. “I think you’re growing soft, Princess.”

Adora hummed, “Is that so bad, though?”

Catra hummed back and finally pulled away, but not far enough to detach their hands. Her devastating grin that Adora thought she might never see levelled her way again, was shining on Catra’s face. “Someone has to protect you, softie.”

Adora licked her lips, trying not to allow her own blinding grin to come through. “What do you say, Catra?”

Catra didn’t respond in words, so much as she just dived in, wrapping both hands around Adora’s face to pull her into a searing kiss. 

**Author's Note:**

> I started a She-Ra [blog](https://catradoramma.tumblr.com), bc of course I did. You can drop off prompts for She-Ra, or basically anything else, there or on my [main account](https://sunscreams.tumblr.com).


End file.
